I was scheduled to crew for both the morning and afternoon charters this Saturday aboard the Daybreaker with Matt. The morning charter was scheduled to go to the Big Fantastic Wall (BFW) and Diver’s Choice and the afternoon charter was scheduled to go to Halfway Rock and then back to Big Fantastic Wall (BFW) again. On the morning charter we had a full boat combined with an advanced nitrox/deco procedures class being taught in sidemount. Knowing full well the amount of gear and tanks that typically ends up on…

Jim needed deckhand for for his Friday morning charter out to Graves Light so I offered to jump on and crew. I don’t really crew much on the Keep-AH anymore; I got burned out for lack of variety in scheduled dive sites and to be honest I’d rather be fun diving instead of teaching/crewing. Still..I do enjoy diving in Boston Harbor and miss some of the regular customers. He had a customer who just wanted to hire a private guide/DM and also wanted some tips and pointers about their new…

I had nothing on my schedule for Sunday and no definitive dive plans. This is one of those rare times when it pays off to keep your last minute options open. I was talking to Heather about something unrelated and she mentioned she had a last minute cancellation on her Sunday trip to the Pinthis. Of course I immediately jumped on the spot. The Pinthis is one of my favorite New England wreck dives. The Pinthis was a steel coastal oil tanker that that collided with the steamer Fairfax…

Because the marine forecast called for high winds 20-25kts SW with gusts up to 30kts Matt decided to bag the charters for Saturday. Instead I met up with Brie and Scott on their rebreathers to do a nice long shore dive at Old Garden Beach. Me and Matt were originally supposed to drive the Daybreaker down to Scituate to dive the Pinthis but that would have not been a fun ride in a 10kt boat in those conditions. In fact it would have been long and miserable. Anyway, not wanting to…

I was originally scheduled to dive the Pinthis on the Gauntlet but unfortunately the winds were not cooperative at all this weekend. It was a nice ride out but the forecast was predicting that winds were going to gust up to 25-30kts SW in the afternoon which would have made for a not-so-great boat ride back from Scituate so Heather opted to stay local and we dove the City of Salisbury which “can” at times have decent visibility. Keyword here being….can. Dave and Tim splashed in first to set a…

When I was at Beneath The Sea (BTS) I stopped by the Light Monkey booth to look at some new products. Consequently, I purchased the Light Monkey Bailout Attachment System (BAS) for use with my rebreather. Now I’m finally getting around to writing a quick review. I know it’s ultimately just a bunch of bungee, webbing and large rings but I think it’s a pretty slick setup. All things considered, it’s compact, unobtrusive and the large rings are easy to find and manipulate with thick dry gloves. You can…

I was originally scheduled to dive the Coyote (~175ft) with Northern Atlantic Dive Expeditions (Gauntlet) but the offshore forecast wasn’t looking so hot with 3-4ft swells and heavy fog predicted so Heather opted to run to the wreck of the Herbert instead (~100ft) . Not a huge deal. At least with rebreathers you have nobody wasting a 150 dollar trimix fill on a 100ft dive. I was just happy to be on a boat and not blown out for a change. Since I had already packed my car for the…

I decided to get some open circuit “practice” in on Sunday and Monday and left the rebreather at home. Me and Annie dove Folly Cove on Sunday while Lewis joined us on Monday (Patriot’s Day) at Back Beach. As much as I hate shore diving I didn’t really want to pay for another two days of charter fees. It was also pretty windy so I didn’t want to end up getting blown out and then go to a less than optimal dive site. 4 days of diving in row in…

We decided to continue the trend of good weather and booked a Saturday morning charter with Cape Ann Divers to the Big Fantastic Wall (BFW) and the Chester Poling. Myself, Matt H., Lea H. and Sang were signed up for the charter. Visibility not as good as yesterday but still decent. It was ~20ft on the Poling in some areas. On Big Fantastic Wall it definitely seemed less but then again I had my nose up against the wall for the entire dive so it could have been a lot…

I ended up jumping on a early Friday afternoon charter with Cape Ann Divers (CAD) to Burnham Rock and the Chester Poling with my friend Matt H. and Sang. I had not been on a dive boat since January due to weather and my rebreather was drying up since my trip to Florida in March. The water was a brisk 38f (~3.3c) on the bottom but otherwise conditions were great. We had a little excitement on our first dive at Burnham Rock when the mooring broke right at the beginning…